When Anytime Dining isn't 'any time'...

[SoBaycruiser]

We just returned home from the two week round trip to Hawaii from LA on the Golden Princess. While this was our 9th cruise, it was only our second on Princess and the first time on a ship that size. I had read that Anytime Dining works as long as you don't try to go at the busy hours. That was not true with this cruise. Not one person that I talked to, and that was many, was satisfied with how the Golden operated their Anytime Dining.

 

First of all, because they had so many requests for traditional dining, they split Donatello's hours so that there was a 5:30 pm traditional seating and at 7:30 it was then open up to Anytime diners. That left one restaurant for diners who wanted to dine before 7:30. Unfortunately, because there were so many days at sea, people were eager to eat earlier and see at least one of the shows and many times both. Also there weren't many young people and so many of the older diners didn't want to eat late and stay up for the 10pm show. This caused a huge log jam and daily long lines for early seating. There was an immediate mad scramble for reservations and everyone I talked to said they rarely could get through on the phone at 8am and if they could, they found there were only spots available at 8:30 or 9 pm that night. One couple said they spent 20 minutes on the reservation line.

 

On the last formal night we wanted to see both the show in the Vista Lounge and the Princess theatre. We dressed up and went for a drink in the bar outside Bernini's at 4:30! At 4:45 we saw people starting to line up to get in for 5:30 dinner. By 5pm the line was so long enough that we thought we'd better get into it too... which is ridiculous. They did open the doors early (5:15) but because each person has to be individually taken to a table, we weren't seated until 5:30 ....which shows you how many people were ahead of us in line.

 

Another night, 2 of the 4 Captain's Circle cocktail parties were given. We were invited to the 7pm party and scooted out quickly to Donatello's, hoping to get in at their 7:30 opening for Anytime diners before the deluge came from the Vista lounge. We were indeed seated immediately and given menus. But then we sat their for 10-15 minutes while enough other diners filled up the section (6 tables for 2) so that the waiter could serve all appetizers simultaneously, etc. How is that anytime dining if I have to wait for a section to fill up? I realize this makes it more efficient for the servers... fewer trips to the kitchen. However, it defeats the idea of anytime dining.

 

One big complaint by other diners is that there would be empty tables as some of the early diners finished their meals, yet they didn't seat anyone in them. There would be people waiting with pagers to be seated but the maitre d wouldn't seat people at it until, again, all tables around it emptied out. Basically, getting ready for a "second seating".

 

It was really frustrating. It was enough to discourage me from traveling on Princess if I HAVE to use traditional dining to avoid lines or eat before 8pm. I know there were a lot of similar sentiments expressed during the 14 days by other travelers. I should say that I've have experienced great anytime dining on other cruise lines but the ships were smaller. Can any of you comment as to what they think went wrong or is this the norm for Princess anytime dining these days?

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Not normal at all from experiences on Princess. I love anytime dinning.

 

My guess is that they assigned a lot more people to traditional, evident by them taking over TWO seatings in an anytime dining room, and then a lot of them choosing to go to anytime dining. If they aren't checking people's cards for dining assignments then folks in traditional can skip their assigned time and eat when they feel like it at anytime.

 

Other people have a thought on this?

[1 HappyCruiser]

We've been doing AT dining for a while now and on only 1 trip in early Dec had a few problems with getting seated. If a particular trip had lots pf people wanting to eat during a one peak time, then there will be long lines but normally people adjust accordingly.

It's also impossible to refill any empty slots immediately since the table does have to be reset. How would you feel if you were seated at a table with food stains on the tablecloth while the waiters were placing dishes & glasses on the table?

Obviously it's not a perfect arrangement, but considering that they're trying to serve numerous people during a short period, they do the best they can.

Did you consider talking to the Maitre D' to see if he could give you a dedicated table in the AT dining room?

[jpthomas27]

Interesting story, It's too bad you had such a negative experience with anytime dinning. I've been on two Princess ships and used anytime dinning both times with great success. The longest we waited on any of our 22 total nights was 15-20 minutes before being seated. I didn't feel this was a big deal at all. We usually checked in, got a pager, then went and had a drink nearby while we waited.

 

I have a 7 night on the Island coming up in September and hopefully I have the same experience I have had in the past and they don't try and run some sort of hybrid system that you experienced.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience, I haven't heard of this in the past but I'll certainly be aware of it going forward.

[tahoe782]

We were also on the sailing and we found it just as anoying. The idea that we had to wait in a long line or end up with a beeper is a joke. The reservation line ended up just as long but moved very quickly.

We are changing to early traditional.

Tahoe782

[Cruisin' Chick]

We had anytime dining on our cruise on the Golden in Dec. 2010, but it wasn't our choice as we had booked fairly close to the sailing date and never cleared the waitlist for late traditional. During the two weeks, we only had one wait as we were willing to share a table. But half of the nights, we just went to the Horizon as we just didn't find anytime dining anything special. My hubby said it felt disorganized to him (a couple of times we were seated with people who had already ordered their food so we felt the need to play catchup) and he felt it seemed rushed.

 

Hopefully we can get traditional from now on. And no worries, we would never try to crash anytime (we haven't in the past) -- if we can't make our seating, we avail ourselves of the Horizon.

[Pam in CA]

The OP's experience mirrors my AT experience and observations over the years and why I prefer Traditional (fixed seating) dining. It probably depends on the cruise and average age of the passengers but I've cruised enough to know that AT is not necessarily "any time." There are two major issues: allowing people to make reservations and allowing Traditional diners to eat in AT. IMHO, neither should be allowed and compared to other cruise line "open seating" dining rooms, is poorly managed.

[Bowie MeMe]

We just returned home from the two week round trip to Hawaii from LA on the Golden Princess. While this was our 9th cruise, it was only our second on Princess and the first time on a ship that size. I had read that Anytime Dining works as long as you don't try to go at the busy hours. That was not true with this cruise. Not one person that I talked to, and that was many, was satisfied with how the Golden operated their Anytime Dining.

 

First of all, because they had so many requests for traditional dining, they split Donatello's hours so that there was a 5:30 pm traditional seating and at 7:30 it was then open up to Anytime diners. That left one restaurant for diners who wanted to dine before 7:30. Unfortunately, because there were so many days at sea, people were eager to eat earlier and see at least one of the shows and many times both. Also there weren't many young people and so many of the older diners didn't want to eat late and stay up for the 10pm show. This caused a huge log jam and daily long lines for early seating. There was an immediate mad scramble for reservations and everyone I talked to said they rarely could get through on the phone at 8am and if they could, they found there were only spots available at 8:30 or 9 pm that night. One couple said they spent 20 minutes on the reservation line.

 

On the last formal night we wanted to see both the show in the Vista Lounge and the Princess theatre. We dressed up and went for a drink in the bar outside Bernini's at 4:30! At 4:45 we saw people starting to line up to get in for 5:30 dinner. By 5pm the line was so long enough that we thought we'd better get into it too... which is ridiculous. They did open the doors early (5:15) but because each person has to be individually taken to a table, we weren't seated until 5:30 ....which shows you how many people were ahead of us in line.

 

Another night, 2 of the 4 Captain's Circle cocktail parties were given. We were invited to the 7pm party and scooted out quickly to Donatello's, hoping to get in at their 7:30 opening for Anytime diners before the deluge came from the Vista lounge. We were indeed seated immediately and given menus. But then we sat their for 10-15 minutes while enough other diners filled up the section (6 tables for 2) so that the waiter could serve all appetizers simultaneously, etc. How is that anytime dining if I have to wait for a section to fill up? I realize this makes it more efficient for the servers... fewer trips to the kitchen. However, it defeats the idea of anytime dining.

 

One big complaint by other diners is that there would be empty tables as some of the early diners finished their meals, yet they didn't seat anyone in them. There would be people waiting with pagers to be seated but the maitre d wouldn't seat people at it until, again, all tables around it emptied out. Basically, getting ready for a "second seating".

 

It was really frustrating. It was enough to discourage me from traveling on Princess if I HAVE to use traditional dining to avoid lines or eat before 8pm. I know there were a lot of similar sentiments expressed during the 14 days by other travelers. I should say that I've have experienced great anytime dining on other cruise lines but the ships were smaller. Can any of you comment as to what they think went wrong or is this the norm for Princess anytime dining these days?

 

Almost exactly the situation that we had on Crown the first and last time we tried Anytime. There was no hint of the 5:15 traditional dining room takeover until we were waiting in line for the first night dinner. Even on the nights that we did not have to wait (because we started going about 5:15 and standing in line.), I was anxious and out of sorts because I might have to wait hour and half as we did the 2nd and 3rd nights. It seemed just unfair for everything to be based on the two dining rooms for how many 800 or so and then have the number of slots at our preferred time (6:00PM -ish) trimmed to 400. We believed what we had been told and on those days where the dining room was not swamped I loved Anytime. Since then I have done traditional early. I have diabetes that is well controlled but I do have to control the medication time and the eating schedule and a long wait means I don't feel good for the evening. If they are offering Anytime in two dining rooms and that is the deal we made then they should stick to it! Changing it at a later time AND NOT TELLING US OR OFFERING CHOICE then I think is wrong. At least it feels that way. I know those who want traditional early were happy to get a dining room seat but having experienced the 5:15 or 5:30 time frame -- it isn't that good on days that you were in port, lazing around the ship or playing games (hint most of the time!) because you have to be getting ready at 4:30:(

[jpthomas27]

The OP's experience mirrors my AT experience and observations over the years and why I prefer Traditional (fixed seating) dining. It probably depends on the cruise and average age of the passengers but I've cruised enough to know that AT is not necessarily "any time." There are two major issues: allowing people to make reservations and allowing Traditional diners to eat in AT. IMHO, neither should be allowed and compared to other cruise line "open seating" dining rooms, is poorly managed.

 

I agree that reservations for AT defeats the purpose and should not be allowed. I also agree that allowing people with traditional dinning reservations to go to AT needs to stop. These people are effectively occupying two tables and denying someone else the opportunity to eat in a timely manner. Although my experience with AT has been overall a good one, probably due to the fact that we tend to eat a little later than most, I hope Princess takes these situations seriousely.

[SoBaycruiser]

We've been doing AT dining for a while now and on only 1 trip in early Dec had a few problems with getting seated. If a particular trip had lots pf people wanting to eat during a one peak time, then there will be long lines but normally people adjust accordingly.

It's also impossible to refill any empty slots immediately since the table does have to be reset. How would you feel if you were seated at a table with food stains on the tablecloth while the waiters were placing dishes & glasses on the table?

Obviously it's not a perfect arrangement, but considering that they're trying to serve numerous people during a short period, they do the best they can.

Did you consider talking to the Maitre D' to see if he could give you a dedicated table in the AT dining room?

 

There is no adjustment possible when there is only one restaurant available to the AT diners before 7:30 pm. Those willing to wait in line get seated at 5:30 (filling up the room) and all others have no other option but to wait until 7:30-8pm when the other dining room opens and the early diners leave.

 

I wasn't talking about rushing the cleanup or setup of the tables. I'm saying the table is setup and ready but some of the adjacent tables might have some lingering diners so thay dont seat anyone at the available table. They wait till all of that waiter's tables are free for the "next seating".

 

We aren't hard to please. We would take any size table and we tried a number of different times. Nothing was working for AT diners on this cruise.

[Love.II.Cruise]

On our last cruise in December on Princess, we had anytime dining. We chose it since we knew we wouldn't be eating in the dining room at least 4 out of the 10 nights of our cruise (between specialty restaurants and UBD and skipping one formal night). In the past when we've had traditional we would always let the dining room know if we wouldn't be there.

 

Again, this time we did anytime. We were disappointed, but for different reasons. Wait times weren't to bad, but the waiters just weren't as friendly since it was more than likely they wouldn't see you again (and we didn't see them again). Personally, we won't do anytime again. Next time we will just go back to traditional on Princess. I will say that we've done anytime on Regent and it was absolutely great (they knew what they were doing - and you could really go any time you wanted).

[hubble]

We sailed on the Golden last November to Hawaii and experienced this same frustrating situation. We always do anytime dining, and have NEVER experienced anything as bad as on this Hawaiian cruise on the Golden. They told us we could see the Maitre D' on day one and get a preassigned table, so we waited in line for over a half of an hour just to get a fixed time. When it was our turn, the Maitre D' said no since we only wanted a table for 2. The people that made us wait to get an assignment should have known that before we wasted our time. Then we were told we could call each morning and request a table for that evening. Again, when we tried that the following day (and many there after) we were told no unless we wanted a table after 9pm. The lines usually disappeared by about 7:45pm, so why would we do that.

 

I don't know if it is because on this Hawaiian itinerary there are so many sea days and people all want to eat that the same time, or what exactly was the cause. The Maitre D' was very unaccommodating and quite rude. No beepers were given out for the first five or more days and the lines wrapped around the lobby. We LOVE Princess, but this really was a huge disappointment on how it was handled. We are booked on the Sapphire in a couple of weeks to Alaska, and had never had a problem waiting (other than formal night) on this ship since they have the 3 anytime dining rooms that are open the entire evening.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

I don't understand why Princess still allows fixed seating diners to also go to Anytime. They have allowed this for years; don't they understand this defeats the purpose of AT.

[Mom33]

On all our Princess cruises, we use Anytime dining. We have never waited more than 5 minutes on a line. We go to the dining room that is always open around 6PM and there are no more than 4 or 5 parties in front of us. Perhaps the lines look long at 5:15, but they move quickly when the doors open. Did you ever try

at 6:00?

[Bowie MeMe]

On our Jan. Star trip which was full, we noticed that there were at least 2 tables of 6 -8 in our section that were empty on 11 of the 14 nights. The one large table of rather noisy Americans told our waiter that they usually preferred to eat in the various pay venues or they didn't want to dress and ate in their room/HC. I am sure that there were many on the wait list that would have loved those seats but the persons assigned to them deserved to have them if they wanted. As long as there are choices that people can choose and those choices make more money for Princess will continue to see many empty seats and most are not going to the Anytime dining room.

 

This trip was really different in composition. The South America around the Horn trip had a large group of South Americans (and a Assistant Cruise Director for Spanish/SA group, another large group of Germans (with 2 hosts), a group of Canadians, and a group of Japanese and these were just the ones that had "office hours" and programming boards next to the internet cafe. It is possible that these large groups made a difference in how the dining rooms were staffed and worked and even perhaps these large groups all ate later than the older American cruisers who EAT AT 6!!:rolleyes:

[PescadoAmarillo]

We gave up on true AD when Princess implemented the 5:30pm TD and used half of the AD space to accommodate it. We still book AD, but meet with the maitre d' on embarkation day and ask for a table for 2 at 6pm. Some cruises we're put in the truly Anytime DR and sone cruises we're put in the 5:30pm Traditional DR but we come at 6pm. Sometimes we're offered the 6pm Traditional dining room but if it's in a dining room on Deck 6 at the back of the ship we decline. We prefer the mid-ship dining rooms.

 

So, we really aren't AD at all anymore, and it's sad. Whereas we had never missed a sunset or a sailaway, now we do sometimes. And I sometimes feel we rush through the Elite lounge in Skywalkers. There's a big difference between going to dinner at 6pm and going at 6:45pm which I would prefer. But when we see the long line waiting for AD when we leave the dining room, I feels it's a good tradeoff.

[1 HappyCruiser]

On all our Princess cruises, we use Anytime dining. We have never waited more than 5 minutes on a line. We go to the dining room that is always open around 6PM and there are no more than 4 or 5 parties in front of us. Perhaps the lines look long at 5:15, but they move quickly when the doors open. Did you ever try

at 6:00?

 

We also eat early and that's probably why we NEVER have any wait unless you count waiting at the door for 5 or 10 minutes until they open. We also sit at a table for 2 which are usually the first to get pagers. We also return on many nights after 9 PM for dessert & the DR is practically emptying out with many tables available.

If people could just get out of the rut of trying to eat between 6 & 7:30 PM half of the complaints would be solved.

[kathy_bc]

We HATED Anytime Dining in April on the Golden and will never do it again. The lineups were massive, and because they seat one group at a time, it goes very slow. When we did get the beeper, there was quite a wait for the dining time. The worst part was when we got seats up in the Traditional dining. The waiters there were so busy with their own regular clients, we waited forever to get served. It's a bad mix, mixing traditional with AT. Just doesn't work. We tried a couple of times phoning at 8 a.m. when the dine-line opens. By the time we would get through, we were only offered 8:30 pm. Too late for us.

 

I did like the anytime dining on the Sapphire. We never had to wait long, but they had 3 dining rooms that served the same way.

[JimmyVWine]

Let the "early birds" queue up at 4:45 for a 5:30 seating. Just show up between 7:30 and 7:45 and you will rarely have a wait. Never once have I been handed a light-up buzzer. Never. Longest wait has been 3-5 minutes.

[SweetpeaOne]

I thought anytime dining was I can show up whenever I wanted. Is that not true? We have anytime dining for our cruise in August.

[Pam in CA]

I thought anytime dining was I can show up whenever I wanted. Is that not true? We have anytime dining for our cruise in August.

Yes. That's true but depends on the dining room that you show up at, but there's no guarantee you'll be seated right away and you might wind up waiting an hour... or more. You will have better luck if you are willing to sit with others at a table. If you want a table for two, then you have to wait for one to become available. Since the waitstaff is serving tables on different courses (you might be getting an appetizer while the table next to you is waiting for their entrees), it's not as efficient as they have to go to several different stations in the kitchen to get plates rather than be able to pick up multiple orders from the same station at the same time. One time, when we were doing Anytime, a table for 8 had reservations for a half hour after us. We waited for our entrees while they took drink and dinner orders... probably about 15 minutes. Then, we sat with our dirty entree plates for another 20+ minutes while the other table was served their appetizers. Both our group at our table and the other tables in the waitstaff's section had standing reservations so this was repeated night after night.

[JimmyVWine]

I thought anytime dining was I can show up whenever I wanted. Is that not true? We have anytime dining for our cruise in August.

 

Anytime Dining on the ship is like anytime dining at a Cheesecakes Factory. You can show up to dine whenever you want. But that doesn't mean that you will be seated immediately upon arrival. If the tables are filled, you get a square, light-up buzzer that you carry around that will alert you when a table is ready for you. Depending on what time you arrive and how crowded the dining room is, you could be seated immediately or wait 45-60 minutes, though that is not the norm.

[caribill]

Although it seems annoying that a second dining room is used for early traditional, it should be realized that the 400 or so people at that seating want to eat early. If they did not have the second early seating for them, they would be lined up with all the others who prefer their anytime to be around 6 PM. Same result, more people who want to eat around 6 PM than two dining rooms can handle.

 

Each sailing has a different set of passengers and their dining time preferances, so one voyage may have 75% of the anytime diners wanting to eat around 6 PM and another might have 75% want8ing to eat around 8 PM and another might have all the anytime diners distributed throughout the evening.

 

Princess limits how many people can be in traditional dining with two or three fixed seatings. Everyone else gets placed into anytime.

 

Some other lines limit how many people can sign up for anytime. Once the limit is reached, all others must be assigned to a traditional seating. In this case, the anytime lines are probably relatively short, but there would be much complaining from people who did not want traditional, but were assigned to it.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Let the "early birds" queue up at 4:45 for a 5:30 seating. Just show up between 7:30 and 7:45 and you will rarely have a wait. Never once have I been handed a light-up buzzer. Never. Longest wait has been 3-5 minutes.

 

We never eat dinner before 8pm which is why anytime is great for us. We never wait in line. We usually get our choice of wait staff as well. So if there is someone we like on the 1st or 2nd day we ask for them for the rest of the cruise.

 

We are still unwinding from our day at 6!

[paul929207]

I thought anytime dining was I can show up whenever I wanted. Is that not true? We have anytime dining for our cruise in August.

AD is like going to a restaurant at home. Sometimes you walk in the door and there is a table available. Other times in can be a long wait for a table.